> > By the transparency rule, a packet-filtering router acting as a
> > firewall which permits outgoing IP packets with the Don't Fragment
> > (DF) bit set MUST NOT block incoming ICMP Destination Unreachable /
> > Fragmentation Needed errors sent in response to the outbound packets
> > from reaching hosts inside the firewall, as this would break the
> > standards-compliant usage of Path MTU discovery by hosts generating
> > legitimate traffic.
>
> i think the use of "outgoing" and "incoming" here is probably enough
> for people to insist that they're not doing anything wrong. after
> all, it says nothing about incoming traffic with the DF bit or
> outgoing ICMP messages, which is usually where the problem is.
This would only be a problem if the bottleneck is *inside* the
firewall.
In practice the problems occur with configurations looking like:
inside outside
web server === firewall ============= t1 ---- t2 ====== client
'=' is 1500 byte MTU
'-' is smaller MTU
In this case, the web server is sending out DF packets of size 1500
bytes; t1 sends back a "frag needed" ICMP, which is being dropped by
the firewall.
Large packets sent by "client" wind up hitting the bottleneck at t2,
get the "frag neededs" and adapt.
If t1/t2 are buggy and don't send the "frag needed" errors, that's
another matter entirely (not a firewall bug).
- Bill